Podcasts about zuisei

December 8 was Bodhi Day, the celebration of Buddha's Enlightenment. In this talk, which brings a weekend sesshin to a close, Zuisei speaks of the Buddha's life of practice and realization, focusing specifically on the aspiration, courage and determination that supported his vow to awaken. Most importantly, she links his aspiration to our own, stressing the point that we have everything that the Buddha had, which means that we too can awaken; we too can reach “the Unbinding.” The Buddha may have had to walk the path on his own, but we have his inimitable example, which can always be a source of inspiration.

Where do you go to be seen and to be seen through? Facing reality, facing yourself, that is what's needed here and now. From the spacious and bare zazen practice of the Zen Sōtō priest Kosho Uchiyama and the new movement of Secular Buddhism to Yuval Noah Harari's 21st Lesson for the 21st Century, his book on pressing global issues like the consequences of rapid changes in pervasive technology, Zuisei takes up various paths that lead to the realization that to liberate ourselves and each other, we must understand our minds.

Without you, I cannot be me. Who am I? In this talk Zuisei reflects on how we see ourselves and one another verses the reality of what is, who is. How could you be one unchanging self? Why do we often hold each other and ourselves to a familiar idea of who we are, and what happens when individuals and communities do not?

I can't. I won't. This is the sound of fear in the lead. And a sign to look closer. In this talk Zuisei returns to the three steps or ways to enter our zazen—failing, falling, and feeling—and studies the fear that often holds us back from fully realizing them. How does practice enable us to stay with our fear—to be both fearful and fearless? Zuisei reminds us that when we realize that we're like the sky, vast and boundless, there's no thought or feeling we cannot face or hold. This talk includes a short guided meditation.

Today is an especially poignant article that talks about the only thing that truly matters...Love.

Acknowledging that practice does not always come easily, in this talk Zuisei skillfully guides us back to the art of shikantaza, “the gate of ease and joy,” as Dogen called it. But what is shikantaza? How do we practice it, when we have to let go of doing and striving? Zuisei describes three steps: failing, falling, and feeling—ways to enter our zazen and also our day-to-day lives.

Why prostrate yourself, when Buddhism doesn't include belief in God or a higher power? With insights from Eihei Dogen, Judy Lief, and Reggie Ray, Zuisei looks at the power of the sacred and of bowing, as well as the importance of prostration in the cultivation of devotion—an attitude of respect and reverence so needed in this world today.

“When we practice mindfulness we are not practicing for ourselves alone, but also for the countless generations to follow.” –Thich Nhat Hanh In this session, Zuisei and the sangha take up this teaching as they continue their study of Thich Nhat Hanh's Understanding Our Mind. The session opens with a “student entering ceremony,” recognizing sangha members Marguerite Battaglia, Adam Green, Brian Pontillo and Jess Angelson, as Zuisei's formal students.

When our path seems unclear and reality precarious, where do we turn? In this talk Zuisei and the sangha take this question to heart. Zuisei reminds us, as the famous Machado song says, that “the path is made by walking.” Whether it seems laid bare for miles ahead or the view appears obscured, we can ever only take one step at a time.

In this talk Zuisei dives into the center of the eighth realization—the awareness that the fire of birth and death is raging, causing endless suffering everywhere. Even in difficult moments there is a soft spaciousness, perfect and complete, where we are whole and things are as they are. How do we remember this in the very real and present stress of our day to day lives?

The Seventh Realization of Great Beings teaches us to live simply, follow the precepts, and treat all beings equally and with compassion. Through the poetry of Hafiz and the stories of the Zen teacher and Sixth Ancestor Huineng, Zuisei cuts to the heart of living simply so that we might apply this sense of simplicity and openness to our lives outside of the monastery, in the reality of our everyday lives. Sangha member Norm Christian also offers a short talk on sincerity of intent.

In this mondo Zuisei introduces the Sixth Realization of Great Beings through the sangha's reflections on their lived experiences of the past year. This realization turns to equanimity and generosity in the midst of poverty—poverty of mind and spirit that creates our sense of lack During the pandemic, have you experienced a feeling of listlessness, Zuisei asks. Or something else? What have you turned to for comfort, stability, relief?

What happens when you deeply listen? The commentary to the fifth of the Eight Realizations of Great Beings says that bodhisattvas listen deeply to others in order to ease their suffering and bring them joy. Delving into the practice of listening and the parallel tracks of growing up and waking up, Zuisei inspires us to listen deeply so that we can become fully human buddhas.

Bring back that lovin' feelin'Whoa that lovin feelin'When your enthusiasm for practice slows or seems to come to halt, does it “still count?” And anyways, how do you spark it up again? In this threaded talk, Zuisei introduces the fourth realization, indolence, aka find your enthusiasm. The sangha takes this up, each sharing their personal experiences of “failure” and “laziness,” and the awesome realization that in practice, nothing is left out.

Are you aware of a mind that searches outside of itself and never feels fulfilled? In this talk Zuisei and Brian each explore different aspects of this awareness—the Third Realization. Drawing on different sources from the experience of addiction to the Vimalakurti Sutra, this talk asks us to reflect on how this searching mind show up in our own lives and how might we might work with it.

In this talk, drawing from Dogen's teachings, the Lojong slogans and more, Zuisei dives into the very human experience of desire. How do the teachings on desire relate to satisfaction and sensuousness? How can we hold that desire is the root of suffering and still realize its affirming and joyful side?

“I want to be like water. I want to slip through fingers but hold up a ship.” In this talk Zuisei returns to the reality of impermanence, from the Buddha's last talk just before his death—the Nirvana Sutra, to the wish above taken from an interview with Michelle Williams. How might impermanence inspire you?

How do you experience impermanence? In this first threaded talk, Zuisei introduces the realization of impermanence and asks the group gathered to take it from there. As each person speaks up and follows the thread, we explore how we can and do work with this awareness.

In this talk Zuisei delves into what it is to experience the vast spaciousness of our ordinary, day-to-day lives. From engaging with our ancestors—whether mythical, spiritual, or flesh and blood—to reflecting on our present and ever-changing paths, how many ways are there to acknowledge the infinite stream of space and time in which we flow? How might this nurture our practice, our kindness, our clarity?

Do you ever pause in the midst of your life and ask yourself, what is my role in all of this? What is my agency? In this talk Zuisei addresses the need to train the body, mind, spirit and heart, the need to learn endurance, flexibility, and kindness, the need to be here now. In the spiritual path, all action is rooted in the clarity and wisdom that arise out of stillness and silence. And out of this wisdom comes hope—or possibility.

The world is on fire. What do each of us have to offer to meet that fire? Reflecting on the teachings of Dogen's Mountains and River Sutra, Zuisei looks into what it means to take care and the urgent need for that care. From practicing zazen to the learning about and dismantling the worlds we've co-created around racism and climate change, how do we show up for ourselves and one another?

Do you find yourself silently commenting on and critiquing this life as it happens? There's a Buddhist term for the seemingly endless chatter in our minds—papañca or proliferation. Zuisei brings to life the teachings on papañca contained in the sutra “The Ball of Honey,” exploring how this proliferation comes to be and how we might relate to it skillfully.

We don't always know we're perfect, we don't always feel complete, yet fundamentally, both are true of who we are. In this talk Zuisei highlights Zen as a path of transformation. She shares her personal journey with sadness and leads an intimate exploration of how practice can change the ways in which we relate to ourselves and to each other. In this way, darkness becomes light, and sadness, joy.

Using a passage from the 14th century mystical text, The Cloud of Unknowing, Zuisei speaks of the bridge between the relative and absolute worlds. She refers to the center of the present moment as the place where there is nothing and we are nowhere—the place where we “just sit"” “just walk,” “just eat,” as we refer to it in Zen. It's the place where doing and doer disappear and we are free to respond to the world spontaneously and “magnificently.”

Anchoring her talk on the teachings on loving-kindness contained in the Karaniya Metta Sutta, Zuisei speaks on the importance of applying these teachings to oneself, as well as others. For the longer we practice, the more we understand that the lines we draw: inside and outside, self and other, exist nowhere else but in our minds. “The only thing that stops you is your mind,” Zuisei says, quoting the late Burmese teacher Dipa Ma. But, as Zuisei points out, mind too is vast and without boundaries, which means that the very thing that stops us is unstoppable in itself.

In this interview Zuisei shares a glimpse into her history around the monastic life and introduces her book Still Running—the Art of Meditation in Motion. Pilgrimage is both an inner and outer journey; it is travel into the unknown for the purpose of knowing ourselves intimately and drawing closer to our understanding of the divine. It is realizing that at the end of a long sojourn, we return to the home that we never actually left.

What does it mean to open into, trust reality, instead of trying to force things into being? How do we reconcile accepting the things we cannot change with changing the things we cannot accept? Zuisei explores the possibility of seeing things as they are, learning to work with this truth instead of against it, and basing this work on the realization of our interbeing.

We have to be willing to take a risk in order to see clearly. In this talk on case 31 of the Gateless Gate: Zhaozhou Saw Through the Old Woman, Zuisei speaks of the spiritual life as a perilous journey. “Every time we ask,” she says, “we expose ourselves. But when we don't ask, we also expose ourselves. So we might as well take a risk—be wild and daring—and see what comes of it.”

For this Fusatsu (Renewal of Vows ceremony) Zuisei speaks of sacred space as the ground in which atonement and vow become possible. It is, to borrow Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel's words, “A sanctuary in time”—a place and period which is both distinct from and equal to the everyday. A space full of possibility. Correction: The opening quote, attributed to Charles Chu, is actually by Margaret Gibson.

We are never practicing alone—not in the darkest pit of hell, not in the brightest state of bliss. When we know this, the natural response is to bring forth our buddha ancestors and look at them in veneration. We formally bow and meet them, which is none other than meeting ourselves. Zuisei and Hojin Sensei speak about the importance of honoring and connecting to our ancestors in spiritual practice. This talk was given at Zen Mountain Monastery's Annual Women's Sesshin, Wild Grasses.

Zuisei speaks of that which is beyond ordinary knowing and must be known intimately. As she puts it, devoting our full attention to the breath or a koan can be an act of love. Zazen itself is that act of love, an act rewarded in ways we cannot predict.

In part two of this talk on Gateless Gate 41, Zuisei speaks on the five overarching disturbing emotions: attachment, pride, envy, anger, and ignorance, and the collective journey we are on to wake up to these patterns and remember our innate goodness. As the Buddha said, all of his teachings were for the purpose of seeing the truth of suffering and its cessation. The way to put at end to suffering is to realize ourselves, but we cannot do it while caught in the storm of strong emotions. So we need to have a way to recognize and deal with them, and this is what so much of practice is about.

“We look out at the world and we see nothing but conflict, nothing but clamor and strife and forces that seem to feed on our discontent. And we think, how can I be at ease in the midst of all this?” In this talk on Gateless Gate 41, Zuisei speaks on waking up to the state of our minds and the ongoing journey of cultivating ease and peace in the midst of all that life brings us.

In the third talk in a series on the Three Essentials of Zen, Zuisei speaks on the third essential: Great Determination. Zuisei explains that Determination is not an obsessive nor heroic quality, but rather, it is our humble, steadfast commitment to waking up— through the good, bad, and mundane. “[Great Determination] knows what it is capable of. It knows— without even knowing how we know— that this path is not only walkable, but that we will do it, that we are doing it.”

Great Doubt is one of the Three Essentials of Zen practice — wherein doubt is not flaky nor pessimistic, but rather a commitment to an ongoing investigation of: what's really going on here? In this dharma talk, Zuisei explores doubt and how the cultivation of this quality leads us to a deeper understanding of the way things are.

In this first talk in a series on the Three Essentials of Zen, Zuisei speaks on the first essential: great faith, discussing the four stages of faith and the role that they play as we commit to the dharma. To have faith is to trust, and to let that trust guide us along our path as it unfolds. It is believing in our goodness, in the teachings, and in our communities—trusting that they will support us in the process of awakening.

When we practice working with our minds, we quickly discover the immense impacts our thoughts have on our lived reality. And when we look at this using the framework of the Buddhist perspective, we come to understand the relationship between mind and reality even more profoundly: that reality itself is really just the minds' projection. In this talk, Zuisei reflects on Gateless Gate, 26: Two Monks Roll Up the Blinds. Zuisei draws on the power that the classical Buddhist teachings have to help us understand the depths and paradoxes of our experiences.

In this talk, Zuisei shares teachings on contemplating and feeling into the body's experience of aliveness as practices of awareness and dharma. Through understanding our experiences through the five aggregates, (form, sensation, conception, discrimination, and awareness) we practice opening ourselves to the fundamental interconnectedness of this body, to all.

“If you meet a person of the Way on the way, greet them with neither words nor with silence. Now tell me, how will you greet them?” In this talk, Zuisei speaks on a koan that helps us to reflect on how we regard and interact with others on the path. She asks: If we do not greet one another with words nor with silence, what is the ground that we meet each other on?

Through the practice of zazen, we come to see the unruliness of our minds more intimately. In this talk, Zuisei speaks on the arising of “no”— the “not this” aspect of our practice that allows for discernment and the continual practice of turning towards a more ultimate truth. And after all the “nos”, Zuisei says, there comes a “yes”— an opening to infinite possibility and freedom. “All of these ‘nos' are so we can get to ‘yes.' ‘Yes' on which not just the future, but this world and every world depends. This is what we're doing in seshin, nodding our yes's, so we can get to that final, that incontrovertible yes.”

Zuisei speaks on the Buddha's Eight Conditions for Wisdom: studying, asking, withdrawal, ethical conduct, learning and reflecting on the teachings, energy, right speech, and understanding the rise and fall of the five aggregates. These eight conditions give us the ability to see things more clearly and allow us to cultivate the space to hold the knowing of our inherent goodness. Through cultivating wisdom, we are able to accept where we are with more grace and love.

Do we choose the course of our lives, or is it divinely chosen for us? In this talk, Zuisei explores the age-old question of the relationship between pre-determination and free will using the support of the Buddha's teachings coupled with wisdom from other spiritual and philosophical traditions. Zuisei says that regardless of the cause and effects of our circumstances, we do have the ability to choose how we respond to what happens to us. Through cultivating awareness of our actions, we can be of benefit to ourselves and others—whether that's in the present moment, or for lifetimes to come.

“The Incalculable” is a chapter in the Avatamsaka or Flower Garland Sutra whose purpose is to blow open our ideas of reality. In this talk, Zuisei uses this chapter, as well as readings from Hildegard of Bingen, Master Dogen's “Sound of the Valley Streams” and excerpts of the modern mystic's Flora Cortois' record of her enlightenment experience to speak of the beauty and extraordinary nature of our most ordinary moments.

The more we practice, the more open-hearted we become, and the more able we are to practice boundless generosity. Cultivating bodhicitta— the awakening heart—calls us to let go of our conditional giving and well-wishing, and invites us to practice extending our generosity without restraint. In this talk, Zuisei speaks on what it means to give boundlessly and wakefully, and to give what the sutras consider the most significant gift: the gift of fearlessness.

In the second half of her talk on Suchness, Zuisei speaks further on the nature of reality and our place in it. “Our lives are just long enough for us to ask, ‘What is this?' and to find an answer to that question. But they are too short not to ask at all.”

Do we know things as they truly are, or as our ideas and perceptions of what they might be? In this talk, Zuisei speaks on a concept from Yogachara's philosophies of consciousness , wherein the first field of perception is the “field of suchness”— where we perceive reality directly. Cultivating this discernment between truth and perception is an ongoing practice— one that ultimately opens us up to liberation.

 “As long as human beings have walked on this earth, there have always been those who've said, ‘This is not the way. This isn't working, it's never worked. So let me spend my life looking for another way. Let me spend my life living another way.” In this talk, Zuisei speaks on waking up from our conditioned sleepwalking to find the innate wonder that life has to offer. Through watering seeds of practice and presence, we choose wakefulness and seek truth.

The call to turn inward, towards our present-moment experience, is a call toward truth. In this talk, Zuisei explores the importance of letting our minds become still, so that when the call arrives, we can heed it. Accepting the call is saying “Yes” to reality. It's becoming intimate with that which we know to be true, which then allows us to see how we must respond.”

Zuisei speaks of silence as the way of wonder, humility, and reverence; of noble silence as the unification of awareness. Drawing on stories and poems, she highlights the importance of silence in our increasingly noisy and harried world.

In the eighth talk in a series on the Eight Awarenesses of Enlightened Beings, Zuisei speaks on the seventh awareness: cultivating wisdom. Wisdom is the highest state we can obtain on the path—a complete integration of presence, compassion, and equanimity. It is understanding that all things—all things without exception—are impermanent, unsatisfactory, and devoid of self-nature. But this is not a problem. Wisdom is accepting, and therefore finding freedom in the fact that this is how things are.

In the seventh talk in a series on the Eight Awarenesses of Enlightened Beings, Zuisei speaks on the eighth awareness: avoiding idle talk (she changed the order of the talks in order to end with wisdom). Master Dogen said, “To totally know the true form of all things is the same as being without idle talk.” In that complete knowing, there is no room, no opportunity, for idle talk. Knowing the true form of a thing, there is no one to speak about it idly, or to speak about it at all. Words cannot express the reality. Live words can point to it, but they are not it. And yet, since we have to speak, how do we do so in such a way that we practice abstaining from thought and language that keeps us bound? How do we create space to rest in a deeper sense of knowing and trusting in our innate goodness?

In the fifth talk in a series on the Eight Awarenesses of Enlightened Beings, Zuisei speaks on the sixth awareness: practicing Samadhi. Samadhi, also understood as single-pointed focus, is an access point of profound awareness. With intent presence, we are able to see the arising and passing of all phenomena. Samadhi is the state in which subject and object merge. We become the breath, the koan, awareness itself.

In the fourth talk in a series on the Eight Awarenesses of Enlightened Beings, Zuisei speaks on the fourth awareness: exerting meticulous effort. Rather than over-exertion, this awareness calls us to place thoughtful intent upon what and how we practice, and it asks us that we dedicate ourselves fully to this effort. The more intent and dedication we put forth, the easier it is to abide in a space of freedom.

In the third talk in a series on the Eight Awarenesses of Enlightened Beings, Zuisei speaks on the third awareness: enjoying serenity and tranquility. Serenity, or equanimity, is a quality that the Buddha spoke of frequently. As a state of mind that fosters non-attachment, equanimity gives us the ability to be grounded, stable, and capable of holding the totality of our experience, whatever that is. Being equanimous doesn't mean not feeling or not caring. On the contrary, it encourages us to care deeply without being disturbed by that caring. It means not being in conflict with one's thoughts and emotions, with adverse circumstances, with others. Fundamentally, it comes from seeing others as ourselves.

In this second talk in a series on the Eight Awarenesses of Enlightened Beings, Zuisei speaks on the second awareness: knowing how to be satisfied. In a Western culture that seems obsessed with excess and consumption, it can be a struggle to know when we are truly satisfied. Yet when we practice and take a closer look at our minds and hearts, we may find that we already have all that we need.

In this first talk in a series on the Eight Awarenesses of Enlightened Beings, Zuisei speaks on the first awareness: having few desires. The Buddha did not say have no desires. As humans, desire will occur—and discerning when it is skillful and unskillful is the practice. We don't vow every day to put an end to desires because desires are bad. We're vowing to put an end to that which gets in the way of living our lives fully. Because doing this is the most natural way to live a human life.

In this introductory talk to a series of eight talks on the Eight Awarenesses of Enlightened Beings, Zuisei calls forth the need to investigate this last teaching of the Buddha, according to Mahayana Buddhism. Through studying the qualities of an enlightened being, we are able to sense the possibility of liberation that is available to us all. “These sutras are describing in a very vivid way , the most vivid way, the universe inside,” Zuisei Sensei says. “They speak of that place where there is no question—no question whatsoever—that you belong. Because if you yourself are the whole universe, how could you not belong?”

In this talk, Zuisei speaks on the power of silence and stillness to connect us to the present moment and the truth of things . In a world where we are increasingly disconnected from presence, silence is a tool—a technology, if you will—to come back to ourselves. “Silence and stillness are the ground from which clear movement and action springs forth,” Sensei says. “To be still and silent is not to be passively waiting, it is to be full with the potential of now.”

In this talk, Zuisei speaks on the third of the Four Immeasurables— sympathetic joy. Cultivating sympathetic joy asks us to feel joy, feel joy with and for others, and to recognize the interconnected nature of our happiness.“There are times when being glad at someone else's happiness requires that we do more than just have the wish for their happiness. It requires that we act to bring about their happiness, bring about their joy. Because when even a single atom, quark, of [a] cell gets affected— everything is.”

Equanimity is the fourth of the Four Immeasurables, four virtues that also include loving-kindness, compassion, and sympathetic joy.In this pointed talk after the 2016 presidential election, Zuisei speaks of equanimity in relationship to the practice of taking refuge in the Three Treasures of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. She also offers an expression of welcome that became incorporated into Zen Mountain Monastery's Inclusion Statement.

Drawing upon both Buddhist teachings and Christian tradition, in this talk, Zuisei invites us into ritual of affirming our own existence— owning our strength, practicing gratitude for aliveness, and standing in our divine power. “What mighty strength is causing you to arise today and everyday? What miraculous power is responsible for your existence? Allowing you to be here now, in this time and place, in this opportunity?”

Compassion, or Karuna, is the second of the Four Immesurables, and is described as the wish that all beings experience happiness and well-being. Yet the wish for others to be well is not a passive “hoping” — but a deep recognition that our suffering is bound inextricably to the suffering of others. Compassion calls us to love not from a place of charity, but from a place of recognizing our shared humanity. Zuisei says: “Buddhism says all beings are interdependent, which means we're more than equal. We are one and the same. Great beings with many hands and eyes. We are Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion, the one who hears the cries of the world. The one who responds to that which needs to be taken care of, that needs to be healed.”

Lovingkindness, the wishing of happiness to ourselves and others, is the first of the Four Immeasurables. In this talk, Zuisei explores what it means to embody lovingkindness in a world that can be harsh, isolating, and far from “kind.” We all have within us the capacity to be kind and loving— states of being that are actually intrinsic— we are just too often conditioned out of it in our dominant culture. Yet life is too short to not work towards cultivating these qualities, or, remembering how to inhabit them.

This talk is part two of two exploring the Fourth Bodhisattva Vow: The Buddha Way is unattainable; I vow to attain it. In this talk, Zuisei elaborates on the importance of letting go of our desire for a future state or an outside thing, and to instead come into our direct experience—to open to what is right here. She says, “Instead of putting our effort on attaining, we focus on practicing. Instead of having living in our out of fear of what might be, we focus on living.”

This talk is part one of two on the fourth Bodhisattva Vow: The Buddha Way is unattainable; I vow to attain it. To commit to this path is to commit to walking a road without end—there is no finish line. And as Zuisei says, this is actually good news: “It's exactly this vastness that leads to our sense of belonging, of rightness. Actually, it doesn't lead to it— it is it.”

This talk explores the second Bodhisattva Vow: Desires are inexhaustible, I vow to put an end to them. Zuisei explains that this vow is not about suppressing what is pleasurable; rather, it asks us to look at how we cling to our desires and in turn create suffering for ourselves and others. This vow calls us to let go of conditioning that makes us feel separate, and instead to focus on our shared humanity so we can work toward building a just and equitable world.

No one is free until everyone is free. To take the Bodhisattva Vows is to commit fully to liberating all beings—despite of the insurmountability of the notion of ending all suffering. In this introductory talk to a series exploring the Four Bodhisattva Vows, Zuisei explains why commitment to the path of a Bodhisattva is essential— why we cannot give up, even in a world with so much suffering and oppression. “To save the environment and this planet? Impossible. To establish racial, gender, sexual, and age equality? Impossible. To put an end to poverty and hunger? Impossible.” Yet we vow to fulfill these vows, because we understand it is the only way to free ourselves and others from suffering.

“Who will teach me how to live?” a student asks in Annie Dillard's The Writing Life.In this talk, Zuisei speaks on the seventh paramita—truthfulness—and its critical place on the path to cultivating freedom for ourselves and for all beings.Only each one of us can learn from our own expression, our own actions, skillful or not. But because every time we set down a mark, take an action, we affect the whole world, we're actually saying that teaching ourselves how to live is the same as everything—every creature and every thing—teaching us.Recorded at Zen Mountain Monastery 02/28/2016

Lovingkindness, one of the Four Imeasurables, is also the ninth of the ten paramis or paramitas (perfections). In this talk Zuisei speaks of the hunger we all have for love and warmth, for the touch, the regard, of another human being. We are hungry to belong and to know ourselves as part of a whole. Lovingkindness for ourselves can teach us that we have never been apart, never been broken. That is why we're able to offer immeasurable love to ourselves and others.

To cultivate equanimity is to cultivate a stable quality of mind that is not swayed by externalities— it is strong, peaceful, and easeful in every moment. In this talk, Zuisei says: “It's not unfeeling, it's not uncaring, it's not cold or distant or even protected. It is unshakeable. It is a mind free of suffering.”This talk is part of a series of talks on the Ten Paramitas.

In the eighth talk in this series of ten talks on the paramitas or perfections, Zuisei speaks on determination as “the unshakeable resolve to do whatever benefits others.” Determination helps us to keep moving forward and keep discovering what there is to uncover along this path. It is a fierce commitment to realizing our potential and awakening, despite all hardship and possible resistance.

In this last talk in the series of ten talks on the paramitas or perfections, Zuisei speaks on prajna paramita, also known as the perfection of wisdom, and the Mother of all Buddhas.Zuisei says, “[With wisdom] we can practice more skillfully, more effectively. We see that in this construct of the self, there are no rafters, no ridge pole, no house builder. If every time we pull a brick or two and when the house begins to wobble, we rush in to build it back up, then it becomes impossible to see. So it takes a certain kind of determination to tear up the house beam by beam and not hesitate when things begin to look a little bare.”To move towards the cultivation of prajna paramita is to bravely embrace bare emptiness— total freedom.

In the fifth talk in this series of ten talks on the paramitas or perfections, Zuisei speaks about our relationship to diligence or discipline and its place in and importance for the path. Instead of seeing discipline as doing what we have to do because it's ‘good for us,' we can think about it as the exercise of self power—as wanting to do what we have to do. This means aligning our actions with a deep desire and a carefully thought-out intent. Diligence is not a vague sense of responsibility or actions that come out of our fear of consequences, but the practice of being in harmony with ourselves and our environment.

In the fourth talk in this series of ten talks on the paramitas or perfections, Zuisei speaks of meditation as the practice of seeing ourselves in the totality of our beings. Meditation is about exercising both sharp concentration and clear seeing. It is recognizing that there is much in our lives that is extraneous but, as the author of the Cloud of Unknowing says, there is one thing that is necessary. What is that one thing?

In the third talk in this series of ten talks on the paramitas, Zuisei speaks on the importance of renunciation: “What if we think of renunciation as the protest against anything that gets in the way of our clear seeing? Renunciation of noise, of distraction, of self-serving thoughts, of doubt, of arrogance, of greed and fear and laziness, harshness and the need to control.”

In all lineages and throughout all time, there have been seekers of truth and light. In this talk, Zuisei speaks on the cultivation of love on the spiritual path that comes from a place of listening, investigating, and taking compassionate action. “What you hold, may you always hold.What you do, may you always do and never abandon. But with swift pace, light step, unswerving feet,so that even your steps stir up no dust,may you go forward securely, joyfully, and swiftly, on the path of prudent happiness.”-St. Clare of Assisi, Early Documents

In the second talk in this series of ten talks on the paramitas or perfections, Zuisei speaks on the importance of cultivating virtue as a quality that brings us to regard all beings fully. So instead of thinking of virtue as purity, we can think of it as a careful, loving, seeing of all things and all beings. This kind of seeing involves a letting go, an emptying of ourselves so we can meet another fully.

Paramita in Sanskrit is translated as “gone to the beyond”, or “gone to the other shore.” It is is also known as “perfection,” in the sense of “wholeness” or “completeness,” and refers to a set of qualities that are based on the realization and cultivation of wisdom. In the first talk in this series of ten talks on the Paramitas, Zuisei speaks on the importance of cultivating patience: “Patience arises out of seeing what is. It's accepting what is. It's not opposing what is. It's enduring what is. Patience is not fighting, not rejecting or resenting or begrudging. Patience is wholeheartedly embracing reality.”

When we turn towards ourselves with intimacy and commitment, we are drawn into a more honest, complete look at who we are and what life is. In this talk, Zuisei speaks on the integrity of following the path. “As you know, the only thing you need to do this is your body and your mind. A cushion helps, a little inspiration now and then, a teacher definitely helps…But ultimately all that it takes is for you to turn the light around, to be willing to get close.”